Two army personnel missing since Poonch encounter found dead
JAMMU: The bodies of two army personnel, who went missing during an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, were recovered on Saturday, taking the number of personnel killed in counterterror operations in the area to nine this week, officials familiar with the matter said.
Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) Subedar Ajay Singh and Naik Harendra Singh were killed during search operations conducted by the army in Poonch district’s Nar Khas forest, defence spokesperson Lt Col Devender Anand said in a statement.
“Subedar Ajay Singh and Naik Harendra Singh were part of search operations launched by the security forces to flush out terrorists hiding in the forested area. On [Thurday], after a fierce firefight with the terrorists, the communication with [the two] was disrupted. Relentless operations continued to neutralize the terrorists and to re-establish communication with the soldiers. Subedar Ajay Singh and Naik Harendra Singh were killed in action in the fierce fight and their bodies have been recovered [on Saturday]. The operations in the area are continuing,” the statement said.
Ajay Singh hailed from Rampur village of Uttarakhand’s Tehri district and Harendra Singh was from Pipalsari village in the state’s Pauri district.
On October 11, five army personnel, including a JCO, were killed in an encounter in Dera Ki Gali in the Surankote area of Poonch district.
The casualties in that encounter were the worst security forces have suffered in anti-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir this year.
Two soldiers from the same search team as Ajay Singh and Hirendra Singh were killed on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, deputy inspector general Vivek Gupta said the search operations like the one launched in Poonch take time to complete.
“It takes time in such operations. I would say for the past two and half months we are dealing with these different terror groups. The joint grid of the security forces is after them for the past two and a half months,” he said.